To clarify one or two matters

WITH reference to councillor Faxi’s letter dated June 2, I wish to clarify one or two matters.

The first is the reference to the word “unlawful”. It is most unfortunate that my article, in which I purposely avoided the word “unlawful” altogether, was given a title by the Talk of the Town which included the word “unlawful”, albeit in inverted commas.

The word I used to describe the wards after the delimitation process was “non-compliant”. I would caution the media to be particularly careful when choosing titles that are ambiguous and can be misconstrued, as is the case here. However, I must agree with councillor Faxi on one matter, and that is this….

If I had said that the wards were unlawful, I would have had evidence of such and yes, I WOULD have gone running to a court of law, not because I felt aggrieved, but rather to prevent the ruling party from acting outside the ambit of the law. Furthermore, the reason we take the ruling party to court so often, councillor Faxi, is because the ruling party breaks the law so often. As the official opposition to the governing party, it is our duty to hold you to account in everything that you do. And my goodness, you do keep us busy!

Secondly, my assumption that the ruling party has divided some wards unnecessarily is far from erroneous. This worldwide phenomenon is known as gerrymandering and was invented by the Americans, perfected by the Nationalist Party and eagerly adopted by the ANC.

It is easy to quote the NDP and play the emotional race card when speaking of past settlement patterns, which we all agree were grossly unfair and benefitted the privileged few, but frankly the people of Kwanonqubela will be no better off now than they were before the delimitation process. So if nobody benefits socially, economically or spatially, what exactly was the point of changing the ward, other than to divide the strong opposition party in that ward?

Our country has one of the greatest constitutions in the world and some top class policies to boot. Where the DA governs, we use the constitution of this country as our guiding beacon. We govern cleanly and fairly.

In the AG’s latest report last week, the Western Cape has the highest proportion of clean audits at 73%. The ANC-run Gauteng logged a dismal 33%. This is why the DA continues to grow. The ruling party, on the other hand, demonstrates increasing disrespect of our constitution, and a consistent lack of discipline and diligence in implementation and management of policies and regulations. This is why the ANC continues to flounder.